Free practice - First session
Michael Schumacher: 8th 1.23.739 5 laps chassis 249
Rubens Barrichello: 11th 1.24.196 6 laps chassis 248
Temperatures: air 27/28 °C, track 31/33 °C

Free practice – Second session
Michael Schumacher: 12th 1.22.749 9 laps chassis 249
Rubens Barrichello: 16th 1.23.213 19 laps chassis 248
Temperatures: air 31 °C, track 41 °C

Jean Todt: “Today’s programme was slightly different to usual, in that we had already tested at this track last week. As usual, the priority was to compare the two types of tyre provided by Bridgestone. Times from free practice are not an accurate reflection of the relative strengths of the teams, as we do not know what fuel loads the others were running, so studying the data will give us the more worthwhile information. Having said that, we know that our package will have difficulty in fighting for victory in this Italian Grand Prix, which we have won for the last three years. We have to work along with Bridgestone to get out of this situation. I hope we will see some improvement in the final three races of the season.”

Michael Schumacher: “When you are not as competitive as you want to be, you try everything you can to improve and my spin was partly the result of that. I made some changes to the setup but it made the car a bit unstable which made me slide off the track. It was not a heavy impact, as I was already at the corner exit. We have lost some track time, but it is not too important as we have tested enough here. The important thing is that the tyres are not damaged so I can use them again. A thank you to the marshals at the corner as they were all very nice, asking me if I was thirsty and wanted a drink.”

Rubens Barrichello: “We have a lot of work to do. The balance of the car was not good and we will have to find out why by analysing the data acquired over the two hours of free practice. At last week’s test, the situation seemed much better than it has done today. We knew it would be a difficult weekend, but we will give it our all to try and please our fans.”

Ross Brawn: “It was not an ideal start to the Monza race weekend, as we lost Michael’s car out on track in the middle of the second session. There were still a couple of things we wanted to check out after last week’s test at this circuit. We have some more improvements to make to the set-up, but generally we are not looking too bad. With Rubens, we have no balance on the car and we must now try and understand why that is. He only drove on the first day of the test, when the balance of the car was much better so we will have to look at every detail to understand why we have lost that balance.”

2005 Italian Grand Prix - Main Page
2005 Italian Grand Prix - Team and Driver Friday Practice Reports Page

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